Connor flushed a dark, angry red. He knew Marley was bad. He knew Marley was very bad, and quite honestly he didn’t know how Claudia could deal with her but what this conversation with Drew was teaching him was that he was not as good of a person as Claudia was. He did not have the level of patience required to deal with the sort of - the sort of nonsense that was coming out of Drew’s mouth. Drew was beyond offensive. He had just insulted Connor’s father in two ways, one by comparing him to the ‘parents’ that were ‘raising’ him, and one by insinuating that Connor’s father wasn’t doing as good of a job as Drew’s ‘parents’. This was ridiculous. Connor opened his mouth angrily.

Nothing came out. He didn’t know what to say. Drew had reached an entirely new level of offensive and Connor had no idea how to address it. He had been trying to not lose his temper, but this was beyond reasonable. He couldn’t stop focusing on how offensive Drew was.

“Well maybe he doesn’t have to tell me how to do that right out because he can show me by doing it, unlike a pair of homosexuals,” Connor said, using a particularly derogatory word for male homosexuals that he would not have used in mixed company without the extreme provocation that Drew had given him. It was one of those words that his father used, but only in very specific circumstances. He knew it was a word for adults to use and not for children to use, but he was fourteen now and he thought he could distinguish between when was the wrong and right time to use that word.

Connor was wrong and stupid and Drew wasn’t good enough at arguing to tell him why. “Your dad is supposed to be a role model for you,” he said, to start with. All fathers were in a position to be... more

There were a couple of seconds before Drew really processed what Connor had said. Then Drew clenched his fists. No one had ever actually said it about his family before as far as Drew could remember, ... more

Drew decided, apparently, that it was a good idea to fully demonstrate just how awful he was because not only did Drew choose to use an absolutely rude word towards Connor, but he also bludgeoned... more

Drew was almost at the stairs. He was hoping that the stairs wouldn’t screw up today and mess up his exit. They had messed up a few times for Dade lately. The older boy would go up the stairs to the... more

It was about three seconds between the words leaving Connor’s mouth and Drew practically running toward him to hit him. At first, Connor was shocked. He had never actually been hit before, not like... more

On the upside, Drew was able to punch Connor for longer than he thought he was going to be able to. He had only meant to hit him once, but then he had realized that Connor might hit back if he had... more

Aaron wasn’t exactly sure what he had been expecting when he asked the boys what had happened, but he was pretty sure that it was on the level of what Connor had said. Well, not directly - Drew... more

Connor was still crying a little bit but he was no longer actively being punched, so his tears were starting to subside, although his sniffling wasn’t. He was embarrassed to be crying in front of the ... more

Drew did not land super gracefully when Aaron let the spell down, but after a stumble he regained his footing and obediently went to Aaron’s office. Okay so this wasn’t going great , but things could ... more